"},"relatedto":{"wt":"[[Laetare Sunday]],[[Lent]]"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwDQ">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}
Mothering Sunday | |
---|---|
Observances | Visiting the local mother church or the church in which one was baptised; honouring one's mother [1] |
Date | 4th Sunday in Lent |
2023 date | 19 March |
2024 date | 10 March |
2025 date | 30 March |
2026 date | 15 March |
Frequency | Annual |
Related to | Laetare Sunday, Lent |
Mothering Sunday is a day honouring mother churches, [1] the church where one is baptised and becomes "a child of the church", celebrated since the Middle Ages [2] in the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth countries on the fourth Sunday in Lent. On Mothering Sunday, Christians have historically visited their mother church—the church in which they received the sacrament of baptism. [1] [3]
Constance Adelaide Smith revived its modern observance beginning in 1913 to honour Mother Church, 'mothers of earthly homes', the Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus), and Mother Nature. [4] It gained popularity in response to the originally American Mother's Day. [5] The holiday is often known as "Mother's Day" in the United Kingdom, and has become a secular celebration of mothers and motherhood.
Mothering Sunday coincides with Laetare Sunday, also called Mid-Lent Sunday or Refreshment Sunday, a day of respite from fasting halfway through the penitential season of Lent. Its association with mothering originates in the texts read during the Mass in the Middle Ages, appearing in the lectionary in sources as old as the Murbach lectionary from the 8th century. [6] These include several references to mothers and metaphors for mothers.
The introit for the day is from Isaiah 66:10–11 and Psalm 122:1, using imagery of the New Jerusalem:
Rejoice ye with Jerusalem; and be ye glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her, all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. Psalm: I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord. [7]
Laetare Hierusalem et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut exsultetis et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. Psalmus: Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus.
Commentators of the period associate this with the personification of the Church as the Bride of Christ or with the Virgin Mary. [8]
The Epistle reading for the day is Galatians 4:21–31, Paul the Apostle's analysis of the story of Hagar and Sarah, speaking of 'Jerusalem … which is the mother of us all.' While acknowledging the significance of motherhood, Paul understands the story as an allegory, advocating for an understanding of motherhood that transcends the material world and fertility through quoting Isaiah 54:1: [9]
Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children, burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than the children of the one who is married.
The Gospel for the day is John 6:1–14, the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which prompted the association between Mothering Sunday and the 'Gifts of Mother Earth'. [4]
Inspired by the 'We will go into the house of the Lord' psalm, mediaeval people began to make processions to their local 'mother church' on the day, typically the local cathedral. These could sometimes become unruly, as recorded by Robert Grosseteste (Letter 22.7): [10]
In each and every church you should strictly prohibit one parish from fighting with another over whose banners should come first in processions at the time of the annual visitation and veneration of the mother church. […] Those who dishonour their spiritual mother should not at all escape punishment, when those who dishonour their fleshly mothers are, in accordance with God's law, cursed and punished with death.
After the English Reformation, the Book of Common Prayer continued to assign the same readings. During the 16th century, Christians continued to return to their local mother churches for a service held on Laetare Sunday. [11] In this context, one's mother church was either the church where one was baptised, the local parish church, or the nearest cathedral (the latter being the mother church of all the parish churches in a diocese). [12] Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'mothering', a term recorded by 1644: [13]
Every Midlent Sunday is a great day at Worcester, when all the children and godchildren meet at the head and cheife of the family and have a feast. They call it the Mothering-day. [14]
In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. [15]
Reacting to Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day in 1913, Constance Penswick Smith created the Mothering Sunday Movement. [5]
Smith published a play, In Praise of Mother: A story of Mothering Sunday (1913), [16] as well as A Short History of Mothering Sunday (1915), which went through several editions. [17] [2] Her most influential booklet was The Revival of Mothering Sunday (1921). [4] This book has a series of four chapters outlining the different aspects of motherhood that the day should honour beyond a strictly biological one:
By the 1950s, the occasion was celebrated across the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries. [18]
The Church of England, as with other Christian denominations, invites people on Mothering Sunday to visit the parish church or cathedral in which they received the sacrament of baptism. [3]
In modern Britain, 'Mother's Day' has become another term for Mothering Sunday in commercial contexts due to American influence, but it continues to be held during Lent. [15] The holiday has also gained secular observance in Britain as a celebration of motherhood, following the American tradition, rather than its original religious meaning. [19]
Reflecting the day's association with the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the reprieve from fasting, various types of cakes and buns have long been made for Mothering Sunday, especially Simnel cake, as gifts to parents. [20] This is a traditional confection associated with both Mothering Sunday and Easter. [21] In Bristol and some other parts of the world, mothering buns remain a speciality for Mothering Sunday: "plain yeast-leavened buns, iced, and sprinkled with hundreds and thousands, eaten for breakfast on that day". [20]
Numerous newspapers across many decades attest to children gathering violets to present to their mothers on this day. In urban settings, churches supply the violets to the children. [22] [23] [24]
Mothering Sunday always falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 3 weeks before Easter Sunday.
Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm branches waved by the crowd to greet and honor Jesus Christ as he entered the city. Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week; in Western Christianity, this is the beginning of the last week of the solemn season of Lent, preceding Eastertide, while in Eastern Christianity, Holy Week commences after the conclusion of Great Lent.
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations, honoring family members, such as Father's Day, Siblings Day, and Grandparents' Day.
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read either in an annual cycle or in a cycle of several years.
Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin adventus "coming; arrival", translating Greek parousia from the New Testament, originally referring to the Second Coming.
Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter.
A hot cross bun is a spiced bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, which has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan, Malta, United States and the Commonwealth Caribbean. They are available all year round in some places, including the UK.
Holy Saturday, also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Sábado de Gloria, and Black Saturday or Easter Eve, and called "Joyous Saturday", "the Saturday of Light", and "Mega Sabbatun" among Coptic Christians, is the final day of Holy Week, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when Christians prepare for the latter.
Passion Sunday is the fifth Sunday in Lent, marking the beginning of Passiontide. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed Passiontide from the liturgical year of the Novus Ordo, but it is still observed in the Extraordinary Form, the Personal Ordinariates, and by some Anglicans and Lutherans.
Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar of Western Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, Lutheran churches, and other mainline Protestant churches. It can fall on any date from 11 December to 17 December.
Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets its name from the first few words of the traditional Latin entrance verse (Introit) for the Mass of the day. "Laetare Jerusalem" is Latin from Isaiah 66:10.
The Introit is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and Gloria Patri, which are spoken or sung at the beginning of the celebration. It is part of the proper of the liturgy: that is, the part that changes over the liturgical year.
Simnel cake is a fruitcake widely eaten in England, Ireland and other countries with patterns of migration from them, associated with Lent and Easter. It is distinguished by layers of almond paste or marzipan, typically one in the middle and one on top, and a set of eleven balls made of the same paste. It was originally made for the fourth Sunday in Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday, the Refreshment Sunday of Lent, Mothering Sunday, the Sunday of the Five Loaves, or Simnel Sunday; named after the cake. In the United Kingdom it is now commonly associated with Mothering Sunday and Easter Sunday.
Pre-Lent begins the Christian time of preparation for Easter, in the three weeks before Lent. This period launches a campaign of catechesis, reflected in the liturgical readings. Its best-known feature is its concluding three-day festival, Carnival or Shrovetide.
Passiontide is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, long celebrated as Passion Sunday, and continuing through Lazarus Saturday. It commemorates the suffering of Christ. The second week of Passiontide is Holy Week, ending on Holy Saturday.
The Refreshment Sundays or Rose Sundays are Sundays within the two major fasts observed in Western Christianity, Lent and Advent. On these days, the fast was allowed to be relaxed, hence the name "Refreshment Sunday". Correspondingly, the liturgical colours of the season are replaced with rose, hence the name "Rose Sunday".
Fastelavn is a Carnival tradition in the Northern European, and historically Lutheran, nations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Iceland, Faroe Islands, as well as Greenland.
Lent is the solemn Christian religious observance in the liturgical year commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is usually observed in the Catholic, Lutheran, Moravian, Anglican, United Protestant and Orthodox Christian traditions, among others. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Methodist, Reformed, and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not.
Clean Monday, also known as Pure Monday, Green Monday or simply Monday of Lent is the first day of Great Lent throughout Eastern Christianity and is a moveable feast, falling on the sixth Monday before Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week, preceding Pascha Sunday (Easter).
Constance Adelaide Smith was an Englishwoman responsible for the reinvigoration of Mothering Sunday in the British Isles in the 1910s and 1920s.
In England, Mothering Sunday is a day to honor both your mother church and your own mother. In the past, young people working away from home visited their mothers and the churches where they were baptized on Mothering Sunday.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Mothering Sunday—In England children away from home at school or work were permitetd to go home to visit their mothers and/or to visit their cathedral or mother church on this fourth Sunday of Lent. Today, many cathedrals and "mother" churches invite all who had been baptized there to return "home" to worship.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)